


Grey Shield

by AndromedaofOthys



Series: Stronger than the fate [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, Nick Fury Knows All, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Steve Rogers, Thor Is Not Stupid, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-07-21 19:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7399951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaofOthys/pseuds/AndromedaofOthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After waking up in 21st century, Hope Daniels and Steve Rogers are adapting to the time not their own, with Tony Stark guiding them through the experience. However, after SHIELD loses the Tesseract to the seemingly mad Asgardian Loki and the reactivation of the Avengers Initiative, they will have to face some of the demons they have carefully put aside and locked up. Namely, the origins of Hope's powers and Steve's feelings for his flatmate-slash-teammate - if you can call Stark Tower a flat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes, I know I said no fixed dates for the Avengers, but my muse nagged me until I caved in. And boy, am I happy I gave in!  
> For those who haven't read Blue Ribbon: go and read it. The changes I made so far aren't big, but they are important in the long run.  
> P.S. Thank you, eschscholzia and aeh2, for the commentary on the Blue Ribbon! You kickstarted this :)

**_May 1 st, 2012_ **

Hope woke gasping for breath, momentarily disoriented by soft sheets and warm ceiling lights.

‘ _Good morning, Miss Daniels_ ’, robotic British voice came from the ceiling, greeting her. Hope tensed for a second then relaxed, falling back on the bed.

‘Good morning JARVIS’, she replied, looking at the ceiling and smiling lightly. ‘Date and time, please?’

‘ _It is May 1 st 2012, oh-six-thirty in the morning._’ Short pause. ‘ _Captain Rogers is currently in the kitchen, preparing the coffee, and Sir is in his workshop._ ’ Hope chuckled and sat up properly on the bed, sliding out of the bed, her feet hitting the soft carpet. She fished for the slippers for couple of seconds, and after putting them on, grabbed and slung bathrobe around herself, covering her nightgown and set off to the communal kitchen. There, as JARVIS had told her, was Steve, operating the coffee maker and preparing breakfast.

‘Morning, Stevie’, she called him sauntering up to him and pecking him on the cheek. He returned the gesture, not removing his hand from the skillet with eggs.

‘Morning, HopeoH’, Steve said distractedly. ‘Get me the tray?’ She smirked as she went off in search for the tray.

‘Back from your run?’

‘Yeah. You overslept’, he noted as he scrambled the eggs with practiced ease. ‘Don’t tell me Tony’s experiments last night tired you out that much.’

‘Nope’, she threw over her shoulder, inspecting the contests of one of drawers and closing it with huff. ‘I danced ‘til three hundred.’

‘Saw ice again?’ Steve asked with understanding. Hope shook her head.

‘Poland _and_ ice.’ The supersoldier winced and shuddered.

‘Match made in hell.’ He poured coffee in three waiting mugs. ‘Have you found that tray?’ Hope rolled her eyes skyward.

‘You really have it bad, don’t you?’ she asked casually, opening one of the lower drawers and picking out the tray.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’, Steve avoided, checking the eggs with his fork and deeming them cooked, dumping them on one of the plates lying next to the sink.

‘Horrible liar, as always’, Hope teased him, loading the plate with eggs and coffee cup with arc reactor emblazoned on it.

‘And you just love to remind me of that fact’, Steve reposted, smiling and picking up the tray. ‘Wanna come into the science pit?’ Hope threw her head back and laughed, grabbing one of the remaining cups, while Steve picked up the last one.

‘Is the sky blue? JARVIS, is Tony suitable for polite company?’

‘ _Apart from not sleeping for last 36 hours and not eating anything nutritious in the last 15, he seems to be in presentable condition, Miss Daniels_ ’, JARVIS informed them blandly, but the pair could detect exasperation and fondness in the robotic voice.

‘Again’, Steve sighed maneuvering around the ktitchen table and exiting the room, Hope falling in step. ‘Could you get us to the workshop, JARVIS?’

‘ _Naturally, Mister Rogers._ ’ The lift at the end of the room opened, inviting Steve and Hope inside. Glass doors closed and the lift descended without any prompting, carting duo from World War Two to the futurist’s workshop.

 

The scene which greeted Hope and Steve as they entered Tony’s workshop was comedy-worthy: Tony was on his knees, fluidly swearing at the cable as he fruitlessly tried to get it out of Mark VI’s left elbow joint, his obnoxiously loud music somehow reaching new level of loudness. Steve had to clutch his serum-enhanced ears to stop his eardrums from bursting, dropping the tray: Hope, who was clutching her ears as well, noticed the slip-up and removed her right hand, flinging it in tray’s direction, dematerializing it on top of the closest flat surface she could find, which ended up being the couch Tony has installed in workshop on the duo’s demand.

‘JARVIS, please shut it down!’ Steve shouted to the ceiling. The music stopped instantly, which only cleared up the litany of expletives Tony’s mouth was spewing. Hope removed her remaining hand from her ear and walked up to Tony, bodily hauling him off the floor.

‘JARVIS, what the hell? Start the music!’ Tony yelped as a pair of arms encircled him, pressing him flush against a decidedly male body. Only then did he register Hope and Steve’s presence, which made him relax instantly.

‘Tony’, Steve murmured in his ear, ‘you nearly busted my eardrums, and Hope wasn’t exactly much better.’

‘I needed to think’, Tony defended himself as he tried to wriggle out of supersoldier’s grip without success.

‘No need to bust your and our hearing, Tones’, Hope chided as she picked the tray from the couch and carried it over to the table. ‘Now clear this mess; it’s eating time.’

‘Eating? But lunch was only couple of hours ago! JARVIS, time.’

‘ _It is seven in the morning, May 1 st, Sir_’, JARVIS dutifully informed his creator. ‘ _You have not consumed anything other than coffee since pizza yesterday afternoon._ ’ Hope shook her head as Steve released Tony and helped him clear off a section of the table with the least amount of wires on it.

‘One evening, Stevie. We can’t leave him for a second. It’s worse than taking care of a toddler.’

‘Hey!’ Tony was indignant. ‘You so can! I am consenting adult!’ Hope snorted and Steve facepalmed.

‘There you go: toddler’, Hope gestured at Tony. ‘Mind never out of gutter.’

‘Or his own ego’, Steve muttered. Tony overheard him; a pout the two was already familiar with appeared on billionaire’s face.

‘Abuse, blatant abuse! JARVIS, are you recording this? Golden Boy and Silver Witch are abusing me!’

‘ _While some would indeed classify Mister Rogers and Miss Daniels’ words as offensive_ ’, came A.I.’s ever patient British voice, ‘ _the records show your resistance to those and harsher insults Sir; therefore making your complaint null and void._ ’

‘Traitor’, Tony muttered with no real heat as Hope and Steve exchanged smirks. Hope proceeded with jumping on the table and sitting on it with her legs crossed, while Steve leaned on it, picking up both their mugs and handing one to Hope. Tony shot them a baleful look but didn’t comment, choosing to bury his nose in the plateful of eggs instead. Couple of minutes passed in comfortable silence, with Hope and Steve munching on their pretzels and drinking coffee and Tony wolfing down his eggs.

‘So’, Tony mumbled, his mouth still slightly full as he reached out for his mug and cradling it close to his chest, ‘what did Nicky want from you?’ Hope shrugged and set down her mug.

‘Wanted to figure out how I got my portalling skills’, she said nonchalantly. ‘There wasn’t anything about it in the file.’

‘And? Did he?’

‘Close your mouth when you chew’, Steve reprimanded him as he set down his mug, too. ‘And no, he didn’t. That would we trust him implicitly.’

‘Yes mum’, Tony mumbled as he swallowed the eggs and took the sip of his coffee. ‘So you don’t trust him?’

‘He gave us your paper file’, Hope’s face was contorted in grimace. ‘Enough reason not to trust him.’

‘Not to mention he tried to get us to talk about Cube’, Steve added with grimace of his own. ‘Anyone interested in that thing is suspicious by default.’

‘Project PEGASUS’, Hope mumbled. ‘I overheard Coulson talking about it and the Cube in the same sentence.’

‘PEGASUS? JARVIS, mark it. So he tried to make you hate me?’ Tony was nonplussed about it. Honestly, he was expecting Fury to pull such a dick move sooner rather than later. Steve shook his head as JARVIS reported the making of the note.

‘Bit too late for that’, he asserted, going through his blonde hair and messing it up. ‘We already knew your vices.’

‘And maybe you are arrogant at times’, Hope sent him a pointed look as he tried to interrupt, ‘but the fact that you can live with us and have no problems with it means you can play with others: it’s they who don’t know how to play with you. Howard was the same. You either played by his rules, or he wouldn’t play ball at all.’ It was testament as to how much Tony’s opinion of his father had mellowed when he didn’t even twitched as the casual comparison.

‘Yeah’, Steve was smiling in remembrance. ‘Remember Czechoslovakia?’

‘Good Lord don’t remind me’, Hope groaned, sending Tony a wink. ‘We needed an engineer to get us through the force-field around the HYDRA facility. They sent us a newbie who had never seen the front line, let alone gone behind it: he pissed himself when we told him what he was supposed to do.’

‘Enter Howard’, Steve took over the story. ‘He just marched in the HQ tent, straight up to Colonel Phillips and demanded to be part of the mission. The rest of the brass was totally against it, so Colonel sent everyone but Hope and me out, then let Howard scold them into submission. They couldn’t wait for him to finish to okay his addition.’ Tony was now smiling, taking a gulp of the coffee.

‘Guess he wasn’t always a drunkard and deadbeat father.’ Hope snorted.

‘Oh, the deadbeat father he was’, she revealed. ‘When you said you were his kid, my first thought was: _poor kid_.’

‘And he drank often’, Steve confirmed, frowning at Hope, ‘but I would’ve never pegged him for an awful dad.’

‘That’s ‘cause you didn’t see him often’, Hope leaned back. ‘One day with him in a workshop, and I figured out pretty quickly he’d be bad at parenting. Jealous little shit, and obsessive to the boot.’ Tony nodded in agreement, and Steve sighed, accepting Hope’s judgment but not agreeing with her entirely.

‘Okay, so what are you doing?’ Steve redirected the discussion, and as Tony started rambling about his suits and the arc reactor he was planning on placing tomorrow, making his tower the first one run entirely on sustainable energy, Hope sent Steve a knowing look. He shook his head and turned his attention on the inventor.

 

**_A few hours later, Joint Dark Matter Research Facility, Mojave Desert – Project PEGASUS_ **

Fury watched from the remains helicopter as the entire facility imploded and collapsed on itself, the van holding alien Loki, Barton and Selvig already gone. Sighing, he answered to Phil’s questions over the walkie-talkie.

‘The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I’ve got men down. Hill?’

‘A lot of men still under’, Maria Hill panted into her walkie-talkie as she pulled herself out of her van and surveyed the rocks she was buried under. ‘Don’t know how many survivors.’

‘Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working on rescue looking for that briefcase’, Fury snapped, and Maria acknowledged the order.

‘Coulson? Get back to base, this is level seven. As of right now’, Fury paused slightly, ‘we are at war.’ Phil paused before answering.

‘So what do we do?’ Fury stared at the distance, before replying.

‘Activate the Avengers Initative.’

 


	2. Chapter 2

_**Russia, that same night** _

Three Russian men and a red-haired woman tied to the chair were in the abandoned railway station. The room is littered with knickknacks and junk: the men stood in the half-circle around the chair, the oldest of them dressed in the military uniform directly across the chair. The woman tied on the chair showed little fear despite the fact that the chair’s hind legs were only millimeters away from the yawning gap in the floor. Suddenly, one of the younger men came closer and slapped her, turning her head: she grunted and shook her red, bob-cut hair off her face.

‘ _This is not how I wanted this evening to go_ ’ the man in the military uniform said in Russian as he approached the woman.

‘ _I know how you wanted it to go_ ’, the woman replied in the same language. ‘ _Believe me, this is better._ ’

‘ _Who do you work for?_ ’ he asked as one on his left walked up to the woman and tilted the chair backwards. ‘ _For Lermentov, yes? Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?_ ’ A flash of fear appeared on her face and she started talking, fastly.

‘ _I thought general Solohob was in charge of the export._ ’ The man snorted.

‘ _Solohob… a bagman, a front. Your outdated information betrays you._ ’ He sneered at her. ‘ _Famous Black Widow, and she turns out to be just another pretty face._ ’

‘ _You really think I’m pretty?_ ’ she asked him coquettishly, but he ignored her, turning to the plate with torture devices.

‘ _Tell Lermentov that we don’t need him to move the tanks. Tell him he’s out_ ’, he picked up one of the tweezers and clicked them experimentally, turning back to her. ‘Well…. you may have to write it down.’ The cellphone rang in that moment. The man closest to it picked up, then offered it to the older man.

‘ _You listen, now -_ ’ he started before the cool male voice cut him off.

‘ _You’re at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, 3 rd floor. We’ve got F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I’ll blow up the block before you can make the lobby._’ The military man gave the phone a wierded-out look before wedging it between the woman’s ear and shoulder. ‘ _We need you to come in._ ’

‘Are you kidding? I’m working.’

‘ _This takes precendence._ ’ The woman huffed.

‘I’m in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything.’ She ignored the trio as the oldest man denied giving her everything, only raising her eyebrow. ‘Look, you can’t pull me out of this right now.’

‘ _Natasha… Barton’s been compromised._ ’ She froze for a second, then relaxed.

‘Let me put you on hold.’

 

_**Calcutta, few hours later** _

Doctor Bruce Banner watched as small Indian girl climbed through the window, leaving him alone in the house and laughed self-deprecatingly

‘Should’ve gotten paid up front, Banner’, he chided himself as he turned to find the person to whom he was led. He found her behind one of the walls.

‘You know’, a striking redhead told him, playing with the scarf draped around her shoulders, ‘for a man who is supposed to avoid stress’, she removed the scarf and folded it over the chair, approaching Bruce, ‘you picked one hell of a place to settle.’

‘Avoiding the stress isn’t the secret’, he retorted with small smirk, setting aside his bag.

‘Then what is? Yoga?’ she asked with amused expression. Bruce chose to ignore the remark.

‘You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart.’ _At least, if she provokes the Other Guy, there won’t be a lot of damage._ ‘I assume the whole place is surrounded.’ Woman shook her head.

‘Just you and me.’ _**Liar**_ **,** the Other Guy growled in his mind. For now, he chose not to act on the warning, going for the obvious chinks in her armor.

‘And your actress buddy? Is she a spy, too?’ The anger wasn’t hard to fake: he seriously disliked children being used. He himself was, after all, one of the classic examples. ‘Do they start that young?’

‘I did’, the woman deadpanned, shutting Bruce up and making him see her in an entirely new light.

‘Who are you?’

‘Natasha Romanoff’, she answered promptly, and he smiled slightly.

‘Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff?’ he inquired, moving behind the table in case she brought out a gun. ‘Because that’s not going to work out for everyone.’

‘Of course not’, a smile lingered around the corner of her lips. ‘I’m here at the behalf of SHIELD.’

‘SHIELD.’ _That is one name I haven’t heard since… Harlem._ ‘How did they find me?’

‘We never lost you, Doctor’, Natasha was brutally honest with her answer, and Bruce respected that. ‘We’ve kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.’

‘Why?’ He asked with same blutness. She paused for a moment.

‘Nick Fury seems to trust you.’ _Same can’t be said for me_ , went unsaid. ‘But now we need you to come in.’

‘And if I say no?’ He tested. Her answering smile deeply unsettled him.

‘I’ll persuade you.’

 

_**Stark Tower, that night** _

‘ _Good to go on this end_ ’, came Tony’s electronically distorted voice through JARVIS. ‘ _You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?_ ’ Hope smiled at the frantic questions, while Pepper only sighed and Steve rolled his eyes as they congregated around the table in the penthouse..

‘Stop worrying’, Steve playfully scolded over the lines.

‘The Tower is about to become a beacon in self-sustaining clean energy’, Pepper reassured him.

‘Provided the arc reactor takes over’, Hope finished her sentence. ‘And that you haven’t messed up the converter.’

‘ _Hey! I don’t mess things up!_ ’ Tony whined, the Iron Man suit diving out of the water and shooting straight for the tower. ‘ _Light her up._ ’ Pepper flicked the switch, and the trio watched as the Iron Man rocketed towards them, the bright neon ‘STARK’ lighting up.

‘How does it look like?’ Steve asked.

‘ _Like Christmas, but with more… me_ ’, Tony replied, angling his suit upward to the platform jutting out of the penthouse floor. Pepper and Hope snorted in unison.

‘We’ve got to go wider on the public awareness campaign’, Pepper spoke as she watched the holographic display of the Tower. ‘You need to do some press. I’m in DC tomorrow -’

‘ _Pep, you’re killing me. Enjoy the moment_ ’, Tony flew up to the platform and landed.

‘Get in here and I might’, she teased him as she walked over to the tray with four glasses of champagne. Hope took over her position at the table, watching the graphs.

‘Grow a spine JARVIS, I’ve got a party’, Tony quipped to the A.I.’s unheard comment as he entered through the glass doors.

‘The levels are holding steady’, Hope pronounced, her eyes glued to the graphs. Steve went over to Tony and slung his arm over his shoulders.

‘Of course they are, I was directly involved’, the inventor bragged, making Steve laugh.

‘Ever the humble one, eh?’ he asked, guiding him to the tray. ‘A proper genius-’

‘With an ego bigger than the Tower’, Hope finished. Pepper laughed, and Tony pouted.

‘Pep, they’re being mean to me!’ he pointed at the pair out of time. ‘Do you see?’

‘They’re not being mean’, she bopped him, ‘just telling the truth.’

‘ _Sir, the telephone_ ’, JARVIS interrupted their friendly banter. ‘ _I’m afraid my protocols are being overridden._ ’

‘ _Mr. Stark, we need to talk_ ’, a voice Hope and Steve recognized echoed through the floor.

‘You reached a life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message’, Tony parroted in awful robotic voice.

‘ _This is urgent._ ’

‘Then leave it urgently’, Tony snapped as the man exited the lift.

‘Phil! Come in’, Pepper greeted him warmly, walking over to give him a hug, ignoring his protests of not being able to stay; Hope and Steve stayed behind.

‘Phil?’ Tony crossed his arms, the champagne glass still in his hand. ‘His first name’s Agent.’ The rest of the room ignored him.

‘Agent Coulson. Pleasure to meet you’, Steve greeted after Pepper was done, extending his hand and shaking Phil’s.

‘Captain Rogers’, Phil stammered slightly. ‘Very-very good to meet you, too.’ Hope rolled her eyes and strolled over.

‘Agent Coulson’, she shook his hand as well. ‘What does Nick want now?’

‘We need you to look this over as soon as possible’, Phil said over Hope’s head to Tony, showing him a tablet. Steve swiped it out of his hands.

‘He doesn’t like being handed things’, Steve smiled charmingly as Hope stepped back and he left it on the table for Tony’s perusal.

‘Yes, I have a peeve’, Tony confirmed unlocking the tablet and sending the files around him.

‘We need you to come in’, Phil now turned to the supersoldier and medic.

‘Is this about the Avengers?’ Pepper asked innocently, adding a hasty ‘which I know nothing about’ at the Phil’s raised eyebrow.

‘It’s safe to assume, Miss Potts’, Steve answered.

‘The Avengers Initiative was scrapped’, Tony said off-handedly, scrolling through the files. ‘And I didn’t even qualify.’

‘What?’ Steve turned sharply to Tony, then to Coulson. ‘Why didn’t I know that?’

‘Apparently he’s… how did it go? ‘Volatile’, ‘self-obsessed’, ‘don’t play well with others’, yes?’ Hope hopped on the table next to Tony. ‘Your profile.’

‘Yup. In my defense, I was dying.’

‘Then why didn’t I know that?’ Steve was getting progressively more upset. ‘I was told you _were_ part of the Initiative, just… not always available.’ Tony snorted, scanning through Bruce Banner’s file.

‘Is that an euphemism for being unreliable? Ask Fury’, he swiped his hand through the hologram.

‘Oh I will.’ Then he spotted the blue cube. ‘What’s that?’

‘The Tesseract’, Phil started soothingly. ‘It was taken from us, by - ’

‘Loki of Asgard’, Hope interrupted, lifting her eyes from the file to glare at SHIELD agent. ‘Norse mythology Loki. Why were you messing with that thing in the first place?’

‘It’s like an arc reactor’, Tony spoke. ‘Limitless energy, completely clean. Dad found it when he was searching for you two’, he pointed at the two with his chin.

‘That thing can’t be controlled’, Hope asserted, unnatural blue shade sparking in her eyes. ‘It destroys those who try.’

‘You should’ve left it in the ocean’, Steve directed that comment at Phil, who only bowed his head.

‘Will you come in?’ Hope, Steve and Tony exchanged looks. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know the pause was way too long, but I lost my muse for a while - not to mention being distracted by RL. Poor excuse, I know, but it's the truth. So, enjoy!

**_2 nd of May, 2012, Stuttgart_ **

Clint Barton was scared.

Scratch that, he was freaking out. Even with the familiar feeling of quiver on his back and less familiar feeling of warmth at the back of his mind, he still couldn’t help himself. Watching the world tilt on its axis after Master Loki touched him with his scepter… Clint that was buried inside was screaming with terror, while Clint on the forefront was calm, calculating even. All of his memories, all of his talents, used against two people he could truly call friends: Nat and Phil. He could barely think. Other Clint was disturbingly similar to him: the aim was true, as was stealth and patience; the emotions, though… SHIELD never asked of him to do anything like this.

_Concentrate,_ a quicksilver voice spoke in his mind. _Obey. Take the iridium._ With those words, Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, took aim and fired.

 

Natasha and Steve sat quietly in the Quinjet, each of them lost in their thoughts. Steve couldn’t help but think of Hope and Tony, whom he left in New York. He truly hoped he wouldn’t need them, but after Phil showed them Tesseract… cold feeling awoke in his chest. One glance at Hope’s face revealed his feeling mirrored in hers. She was afraid, Steve could admit to himself, in the silence of his own mind. Hope Daniels, Silver Comet, bane of HYDRA, was afraid of Loki of Asgard. Steve understood her all too well – it wasn’t too difficult to draw parallels between Johann and their new enemy. Judging by Pepper and Tony’s faces, they felt the same.

‘No peptalk from Captain America?’ Natasha asked, breaking the silence. Steve shook his head.

‘No offense Miss, but I doubt you’d want it.’ Hope’s blue eyes alight in fury flashed in front of his eyes. Natasha snorted inelegantly.

‘Natasha, Captain. And who gave you my file?’

‘No one’, Steve shrugged. ‘You just seemed like my friend.’

‘Barnes?’

‘Daniels.’

‘The one they found in ice with you?’

‘Yes.’ Silence fell again as Black Widow expertly turned Quinjet, her copilot taking over wordlessly as she turned to face supersoldier.

‘Say hello from me to her.’ Steve cracked a smile.

‘Wait and you’ll be able to tell her that yourself.’

 

Loki was bored. Humans were boring. If not for the fact his brother swore to protect this meager planet and the presence of ethereal Tesseract, he wouldn’t even bother. As mortal pests knelt in front of him, he should’ve felt a rush of glee, triumph. All he got, however, was disappointment and, strangely enough, guilt. He shook his head mentally, discarding the notion. He was the rightful king, and they will kneel, one way or another. When the elderly man stood up in defiance, he was not surprised; in fact, he counted on it to happen, giving him an opportunity to establish his dominance early on. What he didn’t count on, however, was the appearance of Captain America.

‘A soldier’, he sneered, picking himself up from the ground where his rebounded spell landed him. ‘A man out of time.’

‘I’m not the one who’s out of time’, the first superhero answered to his quip, making him smile. _So he wasn’t averse to little bantering? Interesting_ , he noted as Agent Romanoff, if his own SHIELD agent was to be believed, told him over the PA to stand down. His answer was telling enough: he launched another spell, this time aimed at Quinjet, forcing the flying contraption to swerve, giving Captain an opening he needed to get closer to him. It was fruitless endeavor, Loki knew, but who was he to spoil the fun? He played along, getting into fistfight with good Captain, throwing him down and placing the butt of his scepter onto the cowled head he knew from descriptions to be golden blonde. _Thor-blonde_ , his mind supplied unhelpfully. _Shut up!_ he snarled as he pressed downward.

‘Kneel’, his voice was a deadly whisper. Soldier’s knee-jerk reaction did not disappoint.

‘Not today’, twisting from underneath the scepter and striking him in the face with his foot supersoldier panted out, scanning the surroundings. Loki took full advantage of the situation, catching him by the collar and throwing him away. Suddenly, loud, screechy voice filled the air, making Loki’s opponent smirk.

‘Not the one for dramatic entrances, eh?’ Loki heard the supersoldier murmur. ‘Tony, you conniving bastard.’

 

‘ _Tony, you conniving bastard_.’ Tony was grinning from ear to ear as he landed in the middle of the plaza, having shot down Reindeer Games with his repulsors, ending tones of ‘Shoot to Thrill’ echoing around him. He thanked whatever deity that was listening on the gift of hacking: he wouldn’t miss this Capsicle for anything.

‘Make a move, Reindeer Games’, he spoke, HUD distorting his voice into something appropriately menacing, little babies on his arms making themselves known. Their extraterrestrial guest raised his arms, his armor shimmering and disappearing in golden light. Tony’s eyebrows climbed to his forehead. _Way too easy. Hope’ll be all over him_ , he mused as Steve approached him from behind.

‘Mr. Stark.’ Tony blinked, not getting this standoffish Steve.

‘Captain’, he replied in kind, watching him from the corner of his eye, noticing tiny twitch in his shield arm. _Hurt?_

‘Let’s get him on board’, blonde murmured, producing cuffs from somewhere on his spandex _which suited him real nice_ – _Stop!_ Tony berated himself as he helped Steve haul the cuffed god up the plank, nearly running into Hope.

‘Steve, Stark!’ she hugged Steve with one arm, her eyes zeroing on Loki. ‘Let me.’ She took Loki by his bicep and sat him down on one of the built-in chairs, standing back to inspect him. Loki did the same thing to her. Tony turned to Steve, removing his helmet to demand the explanation, but was stopped by Steve pressing his finger to his lips, glancing pointedly at Natasha and Loki. Tony got the message. _They didn’t know_. Hope made an eye contact moments later. _Something isn’t right_. Steve stiffened, and Tony decided to play it off to their gain.

‘What’s the matter, Cap? Someone pissed in your patriotic Cheerios?’

‘I don’t like it’, Steve muttered, turning his head to the cockpit.

‘What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?’

‘I don’t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop.’ Tony nearly snorted, and Hope’s lips tugged upward.

‘Still, you’re pretty spry, for an older fellow. Did you finally get laid?’ Hope’s muffled laughter only reinforced Steve’s blush.

‘Don’t tell me: Miss Hepburn here?’ Hope was laughing outright now.

‘Didn’t anyone tell not to comment on woman’s age, Stark?’ she spoke, hiccupping slightly.

‘If they did, he was too drunk for it’, Natasha called from the cockpit. It was Tony’s turn to splutter slightly.

‘No spilling my secrets, Natashalie!’ He noticed Loki’s smirk from the corner of his eyes. _Good_ , he thought viciously. Both the SHIELD agent and Norse-god-wannabe were falling for it. He had to hand it to Hope and Steve, their acting was A+. Thunder echoed in that moment, breaking their act and forcing everyone on the Quinjet on high alert.

‘What? Scared of a little lightning?’ Hope watched as Loki’s expression smoothed into blank poker face.

‘I’m not overly fond of what follows’, he drawled, his accent matching Hope’s British one. A THUD rocked the jet. Tony grabbed his helmet, put it back on and pressed the button to open the rear hatch, allowing a blonde someone to land on it. A blonde someone with a _hammer_. Tony could make so many dirty jokes about it, except that _hammer_ blew him down, and Blondie grabbed Loki, pushing Hope near the edge. _Not fine_.

 

Thor did not expect to find his brother in such a state. Cuffed, in a flying metal contraption, with motley assembly of people he had never seen before: a metal man, man decked in blue and red, and lady wearing dress, gauntlets, shin guards and boots. While he did not sense any unfriendly emotions from them, they were holding his brother, so he had to snatch him away to talk – privately. He didn’t manage to do it: metal man took him off the cliff.

‘Do not touch me again’, he warned.

‘Then don’t take my stuff’, was the jaunty reply, striking Thor deeply. _Loki would say the same_ , came the unbidden thought.

‘You have no idea what you’re dealing with’, Thor tried to reason with mortal, glancing at the cliff his brother was at. He was surprised to find out he wasn’t alone: the lady he had seen earlier was there, standing over him. _How did she get there so fast?_

‘Uh, Shakespeare in the Park? Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?’

‘This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice.’

‘He gives up the Cube, he’s all yours. Until then, stay out of the way.’ The mortal had the gall to turn his back on him, muttering _Tourist_. Something inside Thunder God snapped, and he threw out his hammer. A loud CLANG resonated through the forest.

‘Rogers?’ The metal man was as stunned as Thor was. The blue-and-red man was standing between the two, blue-and-red shield with white star in front of him, Mjolnir at his feet.

‘Enough! Stark, stop baiting him!’

‘He started it’, metal man – _Stark?_ – said petulantly.

‘I don’t care, Stark’, female voice joined in. Thor turned around to see lady holding his brother by the collar of his tunic. ‘Stop the dick-measuring, shake hands and get your arses on board.’ She turned around, muttering _bloody idiots, lot of them_ , and _vanished_. Thor was left agape.

‘There are _seidr_ left amongst you?’ he asked weakly.

‘Uh, no’, metal man replied. ‘That’s all her.’

‘And I’d do what she says’, blue-and-red man said, his brow furrowed. ‘She’s not nice when angry.’


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank moose-swag for this one! The pic is absolutely gorgeous :) It did wonders for my muse

This whole Cube mess was leaving Hope Daniels on the edge, making her jumpy and scared. She knew Steve noticed and she could bet on her signature ribbon Tony noticed as well: something he must’ve gotten from his departed mother Maria Stark nee Carbonell, since Howard could be blind as a bat when it came to other people’s emotions and states of mind. That was one fault she could probably never forgive his and Steve’s old friend, she reflected as she walked from the portal she hastily projected. Depositing Loki and stepping away from him, she took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on the open cargo hold; only seconds later Tony landed, Steve jumping off his boots into a backflip and landing smoothly only meters away, making space for their Asgardian guest – Thor, Lord of Thunder and Prince of Asgard, if she recalled her mythology lessons correctly. Natasha started the plane the moment Tony closed the hatch, leaving three borderline humans and two aliens to stare at each other, assessing danger and creating thick aura of tension.

‘Milady’, Thor was the first one to crack, bowing somewhat awkwardly and carefully lowering his hammer on the floor of the jet. Hope’s lips twitched at the honorific man who was worshipped as God used as a substitute for her name. Steve’s eyebrows went to his hairline and Tony in Iron Man suit shifted slightly.

‘My name is Hope Daniels, not Milady, _Lord_ Thor’, she stressed his title and was rewarded with slight flinch from Thor and vicious smile from Loki before two managed to school their faces into something resembling polite blankness, Loki being far more successful.

‘Apologies, Lady Hope’, blonde Asgardian shifted his weight from one leg to another. ‘I did not mean to offend.’

‘Apology accepted, Lord Thor.’ Thor now crossed his arms and turned to Tony, worried look on his face.

‘Where are we going, Metal Man?’ Tony backed away, his stance relaxing.

‘Uh, name’s Tony Pointbreak, not Metal Man.’ To prove his point, he tapped a series of hidden buttons on the base of his helmet and removed it, showing him he was just a human under the armor. ‘And we’re meeting Eyepatch and Nanny on Helicarrier.’

‘Basic English Stark’, Steve scolded the genius with no real heat in his voice, and said genius grinned sensing it. ‘We’re meeting Nick Fury and Phil Coulson in their base.’

‘Son of Coul shall be meeting us?’ Thor’s entire demeanor changed as he smiled at the obviously familiar name. Hope shot Steve a _go with it, I’ll tell you later_ look when he looked at her with confusion glittering in his eyes.

‘Yeah.’ Tony peered closely at Loki. ‘Hey Witchy-girl? Can you do anything with resident Reindeer Games, like Jedi Mind Trick?’

‘My powers don’t work that way Stark, as you should know from _reading my_ _classified file_ ’, Hope baited, fully aware of three pairs of eyes watching the exchange. Tony did not disappoint.

‘Not my fault SHIELD can’t keep me out.’ Steve’s shoulders shook momentarily, catching onto the game his best female friend and Howard’s son were playing. _Clever._

‘Stark, can it’, he ordered in his Captain America voice. ‘Hope, please…’

‘Sir, yes sir!’ Tony mock-saluted and sat as far away from Loki as he possibly could in the cramped space of the jet. Steve shook his head and offered his hand to Thor, who accepted it after a moment of hesitation.

‘Steve Rogers’, he introduced himself then gestured to Hope with sweeping gesture, who was sitting directly across Loki. ‘Hope is a dear friend.’

‘’tis an honor to meet you, Steve Rogersson’, Thor spoke with a sincere smile. ‘As is your _seidr_ friend.’

‘Not to break your fun Capsicle’, Tony called from his seat, ‘but _what_ is sei-dar?’

‘ _Seidr_ means magic-user’, Loki spoke out of blue, his eyes locked onto woman sitting opposite him, who merely tilted her head at his gaze.

‘Magic.’ There was no scorn, only curiosity in her indirect question. ‘Is that what I do?’ Loki’s eyes flickered between unnatural blue hue and forest green.

‘You don’t know?’ Thor voiced his brother’s unasked question. Hope shook her head.

‘I never classified it as magic, per se.’ She shrugged and leaned back, closing her eyes. ‘Humans stopped believing in such things long time ago. The closest classification I got is ‘energy manipulator’. And… I wasn’t exactly born with them.’ She now had the attention of the entire jet, Natasha and copilot included. Hope opened her eyes, noticed their attention and snorted, closing them again and leaning back.

‘My bastard of a father experimented with that damned thing. The Cube’, she clarified to the rest, feeling their blank looks on her. She opened her eyes, meeting Loki’s and noting their forest green color. _I was right_. ‘He’d take me and Ma every summer stars-know-where in Norway to study the thing until I was around three or four.’ She sighed. ‘He left it out on the desk one night. Shiny, blue cube, just outside toddler’s reach… he forgot how smart his daughter was. I found way up and touched it. After that, my Ma took me and ran off to America.’ Steve averted his gaze, already familiar with the story. Tony was pale, recalling his father and stories Aunt Peggy told him about the Cube.

‘You were very lucky to survive, Lady Hope’, Thor murmured, getting an agreeing nod from his adopted brother. Hope snorted.

‘Sometimes I wish I hadn’t.’ With that she closed her eyes again and relaxed, not willing to talk anymore.

* * *

 

Loki’s transition between Quinjet and Helicarrier’s cage that played part of the prison cell was surprisingly anticlimactic, with only snag being Loki unnerving doctor Bruce Banner as he passed his lab. At the moment, the group that was tentatively dubbed Avengers Initiative, minus Tony and Clint Barton whose whereabouts were still unknown, was sitting around glass and chrome table, watching video feed from Loki’s cell as he and director Nick Fury traded barbs.

‘ _In case it's unclear, if you try to escape,_ ’ Director of SHIELD paced in front of glass cage as he spoke, ‘ _if you so much as scratch that glass, it's 30,000 feet straight down, in a steel trap._ ’ He stopped and looked at Loki as if conveying an important message. _‘You get how that works? Ant, boot.’_

‘Ant, boot?’ Steve murmured, watching with open eyes. ‘Honestly?’

‘Something to do with their first meeting’, Natasha whispered, splitting her attention between her supposed teammates and video.

_‘It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me’_ , Loki parried with a sickening grin on his face and an air of imperiousness hanging around him, detectable even through the hidden cameras and fully visible to those who watched on the bridge. Maria Hill pinched the bridge between her eyes, and Bruce frowned. Just how much did he know about the Other Guy?

_‘Built for something a lot stronger than you.’_ Nick was persistent, Hope had to give him that. Then again, he didn’t become head spy for nothing, and Peggy would’ve chosen her successor carefully.

_‘Oh, I've heard.’_ Loki looked pointedly at one of the cameras, making Bruce shift at the intensity of the gaze and Other Guy growl at the back of his mind, unhappy with the derisive tone alien used. **_Puny man._ ‘** _A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. And that pretty_ seidr _-girl, completely unaware of her potential and held back by her_ friend _._ ’ Hope and Steve flinched, making an eye contact for a moment then breaking it, concentrating on the feed. _‘How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?’_ False god was now threading on thin ice, and Thor was all too aware of the fact as he listened his brother’s words with deepening frown, noticing his allies’ expressions closing off.

_‘How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate.’_ Here, Nick made a dramatic pause, making eye contact with his prisoner, who returned the gaze without fear or hesitation. _‘You might not be glad that you did.’_ Loki smirked, deliberately opting to start walking across the cage, now looking at the different camera as he talked.

_‘It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share.’_ Steve and Hope stiffened, as did Bruce. Maria, Natasha and Thor frowned at them. _‘And then to be reminded what real power is.’_ Nick didn’t look any happier than the company on the bridge as he turned on his heel, wordlessly conceding the verbal sparring.

_‘Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something’_ he snapped as he left the room. Hope was the first one to cancel her feed, breathing slowly in and out, her hands shaking.

‘Arschloch’, she uncharacteristically swore out loud, prompting Steve to turn in his seat towards her and lay arm on her shoulder, which she accepted grumbling in German all the while under her breath.

‘He really grows on you, doesn’t he?’ Bruce joked weakly, trying to lift the mood, which completely failed. Steve sighed, gripping Hope’s shoulder tightly.

‘Loki’s gonna drag this out’, he said in a sotto voice, his gaze never diverting from Hope. ‘So Thor, what’s his play?’ Blonde prince turned to face the World War Two survivors, his arms crossed and demeanor guarded.

‘He has an army called the Chitauri’, Thor explained darkly, lost in thought. ‘They’re not of Asgard, nor any world known.’ He walked up to the table, placing his hands on it and catching Hope’s eyes, looking straight into them. ‘He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect for Tesseract.’ Hope only blinked and stopped muttering to herself, face blank.

‘An army.’ Steve voiced their shared thoughts. ‘From outer space. Great.’ Hope shook her head, smile playing at the edge of her lips.

‘So he’s building another portal’, Bruce jumped in the conversation. ‘That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.’ Thor now turned his attention to the unassuming doctor.

‘Selvig?’

‘He’s an astrophysicist’, Bruce explained. Thor shook his head.

‘He’s a friend’, he declared and uncomfortable silence fell over the gathered group.

‘Loki has him under some kind of spell’, Natasha spoke for the first time since she entered the room, eyes still partly on the feed, ‘along with one of ours.’ Steve fixed her with a glare, which she returned with interest. _Leave it,_ her eyes said.

‘I don’t like this’, Hope shifted in her seat. ‘He let us take him. Why? He’s not leading anyone from here.’ Steve nodded in agreement, breaking the eye-lock with Natasha. Maria exchanged worried looks with Natasha and Thor, while Bruce waved off her concern.

‘I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki’, he advised them. ‘That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.’ Hope bit her lip and removed Steve’s hand from her shoulder, placing it on the table and her hand over his. Steve caught her movement and sent her a concerned look, mouthing _What is it?_ Hope looked at Thor and Natasha debating over Loki, then at Bruce and Maria looking at them. _Johann_ , she mouthed back. Steve pulled his hand out from under hers and placed it on top of it, gripping it gently. So absorbed in each other, they missed Phil and Tony’s grand entrance; they certainly didn’t miss Tony showing off.

‘That man’s playing Galaga’, he teased the bridge crew, messing around with consoles on the both sides of his places. ‘He thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did!’ Phil and Maria sent the poor commander a scathing look, who immediately closed the game window. Steve raised his eyebrows spotting Tony planting the bug under the console.

‘How does Fury even see these?’ he asked mock-seriously, baiting SHIELD personnel. Maria raised to the challenge.

‘He turns’, she deadpanned. Tony smirked.

‘Sounds exhausting.’ He moved away from the console. ‘The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily.’ He walked around Thor, Maria, Steve and Hope towards Bruce, sparing a slight tap on the back for both supersoldier and his friend. ‘The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-density.’ He slammed his fist into his open palm. ‘Something to kick-start the Cube.’

‘When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?’ Maria asked aggressively, surprising the rest of the crew.

‘The packet’, Tony answered laconically. ‘Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers.’ He took in four baffled expressions, two suspicious and one understanding and snorted. ‘Am I the only one who did the reading?’

‘More like, are you and Doctor Banner the only ones who _got_ the reading’, Hope hissed under her breath, but still loud enough for Steve, Tony and Bruce to overhear her. Bruce shifted uneasily and Steve gripped her hand tighter.

‘Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?’ Steve asked the two geniuses pointedly, trying to calm Hope through touch alone. Bruce hurried to answer the question, feeling queasy about the withholding of the information.

‘He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier’, he offered and Tony grabbed the chance to show off again.

‘Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect’, he parried, which made Steve and Hope perk up: quantum physics weren’t a complete unknown to them.

‘Well’, Bruce hedged smiling, ‘if he could do that, he could archieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.’ Tony was grinning madly in a way Steve and Hope privately dubbed mad-scientist-bro grin.

‘Finally, someone who speaks English’, he proclaimed and Steve felt obliged to add his comment: ‘Is that what just happened?’


End file.
